In the art of cooking fresh bagels, it is recognized practice to "kettle" or "power proof" the fresh bagel dough before oven baking. Traditionally, the procedure is carried out by immersing a number of raw bagels into boiling water contained in a large open top round or semi-spherical kettle. The raw bagels are stirred with a wooden paddle to circulate about the kettle's interior until judged sufficiently proofed whereupon they are removed from the kettle and deposited on trays for oven baking. This operation serves to produce the familiar dense-chewey interior texture while forming an attractive glazed outside crust on the bagel.
Much of the bagel cooking art has been passed from generation to generation while the cooking equipment itself has seen little change over the years. In particular, relatively large traditional round bottom heavy kettles used for the proofing operation are not only difficult to manufacture, but are relatively quite expensive particularly if made according to preferred practice. In general, currently known kettles for proofing bagels are approximately 42 inches in diameter and are capable of handling six dozen raw bagels for each proofing cycle.
Recently the bagel industry has experienced a remarkable period of growth so that both fresh and frozen bagels are available readily in local grocery outlets and supermarkets. In addition the increasing popularity of bagels has given rise to a rapidly expanding number of franchised outlets of relatively modest size. This latter development has created demand for improved, space saving, economical and efficient bagel processing equipment which is compact without diminished operating capacity. It is to this development that the present invention is directed.